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Maple Leafs: Nazem Kadri in groove as team zeroes in on playoff berth: Cox

After hammering Ottawa 4-0 — with a hat trick from Nazem Kadri — the Leafs seem certain of advancing to the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

Toronto's Nazem Kadri, centre, takes advantage of traffic around the Ottawa net to fire the puck past Senators goalie Ben Bishop (30) during the second period Saturday night at the Scotiabank Centre.
(PATRICK DOYLE / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

OTTAWA—Nazem Kadri admits it. There were times he wanted to scream, times he wanted to loudly tell the world that he deserved to be in the NHL and was being unfairly held back.

But he didn’t. His mother, in particular, urged him to keep his own counsel, while his father struggled with the same frustration.

“I held myself back because it was the right thing to do,” said Kadri of those trying days of learning in the American Hockey League. “I didn’t want to get myself in any more hot water than I was.”

On Saturday night, when a kiss from Don Cherry on national television that followed a brilliant natural hat trick for the Maple Leafs seemed to signal his arrival as a full-blown NHL star, Kadri admitted that looking back upon his apprenticeship, the Leafs handled him correctly.

“It was the right play, and it meant I paid my dues,” said Kadri, the team’s first-round pick in 2009 who vaulted to sixth in NHL scoring with a four-point effort in a rousing 4-0 triumph over the Ottawa Senators.

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“It sucked (being in the AHL). I didn’t enjoy what was happening. I didn’t understand the whole process and I felt I could contribute right away, especially with the team losing. That made my blood boil.”

Now, seemingly gaining confidence with every game and every shift, Kadri and his eye-popping plus-20 rating have been the individual highlight of this Leaf season, one that seems inexorably headed towards the team’s first playoff berth since Kadri, now 22 years old, was just 13.

Instead of doing the math on what it might take to grab the eighth and final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference, the Leafs sit sixth and have a nine-point bulge over the ninth-place New York Islanders.

After a terrific eight-day, five-game stretch in which they grabbed nine of a possible 10 points, it would now take a remarkable change of fate, greater even than last season’s spectacular crash, to block the Leafs from gaining entry to the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs.

“We’re not just looking to squeak in and then lose in the first round,” said Kadri. “We want to make a name for ourselves. We want to change what everybody thinks about the Toronto Maple Leafs.”

The rise of Kadri, and his newfound collaboration with Joffrey Lupul and Nik Kulemin, has given the Leafs a powerful new offensive unit that has, really, taken over from the James van Riemsdyk-Tyler Bozak-Phil Kessel unit as Toronto’s No. 1 line.

“We’re playing them in tougher matchups now,” confirmed head coach Randy Carlyle.

Lupul scored his eighth goal in six games since returning from a broken forearm, already giving him as many goals this season as any member of the Senators.

He was the seventh overall pick in the 2002 NHL draft just as Kadri was No. 7 in 2009, but he dismissed a suggestion that he can now mentor his younger linemate.

“I’m not trying to mentor him,” said Lupul of Kadri. “I can try to be a leader, but I’m not going to interfere with his development. He’s got to learn on his own, and as you can tell, he’s doing a pretty good job of that.”

With 44 points, the Leafs are tied with Ottawa, although the Sens have played one less game, and are just two points behind Boston for fourth in the conference.

The Leafs got an early goal from the red-hot Lupul on a power play off a pass from Kadri, and then one from Kadri midway through the second during a delayed penalty call to Chris Neil. Kadri then finished his dazzling night with a pair early in the third, and James Reimer stopped all 31 Ottawa shots, including two Guillaume Latendresse breakaways.

With all the talk of the Leafs investigating possible deals for veteran goalies like Roberto Luongo and Miikka Kiprusoff, Reimer delivered a timely message that he’s capable of carrying the load.

“Anytime you get a shutout it’s an exclamation mark, although I think I got a bit lucky,” he said. “(Leaf management) knows what I’m capable of. I’m sure they’ll make the right decision.

“I’m just here to stop pucks.”

The Leafs, meanwhile, don’t play again until Thursday after a murderous stretch of games, so they have all the information they’re going to have on their current roster before Wednesday’s NHL trade deadline. There’s all the goalie chatter circling around the team, plus talk the Leafs would like to acquire a top-four defenceman, perhaps one of Keith Yandle, Dmitri Kulikov or Jay Bouwmeester.

“Right now, the break is welcome,” said Carlyle, who planned to give his charges Sunday off. “We’ve played an awful lot of hockey. Now the weather’s turning, spring is here and these guys have earned a rest.

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